DCB Class of 2024 Eddy J: Cracking the Code

This article is part of a series featuring some of our outgoing Year 13 students, their life at DCB, and their advice for students on their journey to university.

In 2011, a time when most young students associated computers with online entertainment, a then Year 1 Eddy J was already going against the grain by delving into basic programming, his keyboard clatter and tapping echoing his growing interest in the world of programming.

Fast forward to today, as a member of the Class of 2024, Eddy reflects on his journey from those early days to soon pursuing Computer Science (CS) at the prestigious Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the second-highest-ranked US university for CS per CSRankings.org with a 6.7% acceptance rate, as part of the James Scholar Honors Program, all while leaving an indelible mark on the Dulwich College Beijing (DCB) community. 

What does it take to turn a childhood fascination into a future career? In this installation, we invited the former STEAM Prefect to share more about his journey from DUCKS to pre-university here at DCB, what he’ll miss, and some advice to those on their journey to university. 

How 20RMB Kickstarted Eddy’s Computer Science Journey

When Eddy was 8, his mother signed him up for an introductory programming course for Python. It wasn’t until she personally picked him up from class one day that she noticed her 8-year-old amidst his much taller, 14 to 16-year-old classmates that she realised that the class was intended for older students.  

But the age gap didn’t faze Eddy; he was so engrossed in the course that he didn’t even give it a second thought, which was also largely due to the care and attention his teacher at the time, Mr Jeremy Pedersen. Coincidentally, Mr Pedersen now works with DCB's partner AWS (Amazon Web Services), and Eddy recently had the wonderful opportunity to reconnect with him again during a school event. 

At the end of the programme, the class had a friendly coding competition with a 20RMB cash prize at stake. Eddy’s program ended up winning by only a few milliseconds, which allowed him to proudly take home his first-ever programming accolade.

Eddy credits Mr Pedersen for igniting his passion for programming – and the memorable conclusion to it. “Thanks to him and that experience, I joke that 20RMB helped kick off my whole CS career.” 

Holistic Learning at DCB 

Eddy’s passion for Computer Science isn’t the only thing he nurtured, as he’s also passionate about sports, teaching, and music. “I’ve been in both the male and mixed voice choir every year since coming here. I also sang with the Chamber Choir for a couple of years and played the saxophone in our school’s jazz band. I’m extremely fortunate to have so many musical opportunities at DCB – we have so many musical events, like orchestras, busking, and solo performances, that all students can take part in. It really adds so much to the student experience.

With his passion for Computer Science, it’s no wonder that Eddy later pursued a role as a STEAM prefect. Leveraging his passion for teaching, he shared that one of his favourite experiences at DCB was getting to teach the Junior (School) Masters and Technology ECA (extracurricular activity). “I had so much fun teaching them because they were excited to participate, enjoyed learning, and were eager to engage with my activities. I was also extremely lucky to have worked with three passionate Year 9 – now Year 10 – students, Hannah, Hailey, and Nena, to continue this club after I started getting busy with my university applications. Serving as a Prefect opened doors to numerous opportunities, which I wholeheartedly embraced.”

Eddy's proactive nature extends to his other initiatives around school; he actively engages in organising activities and sharing his expertise – such as the AI and machine learning summer camp he organised for Year 7 – 12 DCB students last year and the Rubik’s Cube club he founded in Year 9, which taught over 30 beginners how to solve the Rubik’s Cube in under 90 seconds. 

• When he was in Year 10, Eddy J ranked ninth worldwide at Computing Challenge. Read more here
• When he was in Year 11, Eddy J won the National Individual Top Score Award and led a DCB team that also achieved the top score on all four successive rounds of the ACSL (American Computer Science League) and achieved fantastic results at the All-Star Contest, the end-of-year finals in August 2021. Read more here

“One of the best things about DCB is that every student has an equal opportunity to reach out to teachers, propose projects, and support a need for the school,” said Eddy. “University will be a much larger school environment where opportunities won’t come as easily as it has here at DCB. Becoming STEAM prefect encouraged me to take initiative and act on needs suggested by the school community, which is good practice for leadership in my future university life. For example, the AI summer camp I put together for DCB students last summer was done as a result of students reaching out to me suggesting I do it.”

“I’ll miss our community – being able to attend school with my Class of 2024 friends and seeing my teachers on a regular basis. I feel like, at DCB, everyone likes working together and supporting each other, and I really feel happy at school because it’s like one big happy family, and I'm going to miss that.”

Journey to CS at UIUC, and why there

Despite some of the negative stereotypes that surround large public universities, Eddy found the teaching approach of UIUC welcoming and even refreshing. Enamoured by its personalised curriculum, flexible learning resources, and its tranquil learning environment, he couldn’t help but feel excited. 

Eddy is already enrolled in UIUC’s New Student Registration (NSR) programme, which pairs students with a team of academic advisors who facilitate the design of personalised university paths to ensure individualized and smooth learning.

“Besides General Education (GE) requirements, the school doesn’t have a fixed curriculum,” Eddy explained, underscoring his preference for flexibility and hands-on learning. “UIUC is a resource-rich university with a strong CS programme, a laboratory just for CS development, and a perfect environment for learning, with enough social events that students feel engaged in the school's culture but is quiet enough on most days so that I can focus on my own studies.” Furthermore, as an Honours student in the James Scholar Honours programme, Eddy is looking forward to more advanced academic opportunities, such as exclusive course scheduling, undergraduate research opportunities, various career development resources, and engineering competitions with potential funding for these activities.

Joining this (R1) research-intensive university will offer Eddy J the opportunity to work on cutting-edge research projects alongside esteemed faculty members, offering him valuable hands-on experience and in-depth knowledge in their fields of study. UIUC also has a Research Park, which has over 120 companies and growing, and where, at any given time, more than 800 student interns are gaining valuable experiential learning and work experience. So Eddy is quite excited about the next part of his academic journey.

University Planning

After completing the bulk of his IB coursework during the summer last July, Eddy began working on his university applications and essays, which he shared was an unexpected challenge. “I'm not that good at introspection, so writing those essays has been one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life, and you have to write a lot of them if you’re applying to the US. I know for a fact that I love CS, but I struggled immensely with describing the exact reasons why I do to admission officers who barely know me.” 

The essays forced him to think more deeply about his motivations and his exact reasons for choosing CS and the university. “It’s not like programming where you can search online for answers or browse forums. Your work is specific to you and the answers wouldn't make sense coming from someone else. That's the level of personality that should be in your essay; you’re showing who you are, what you like to do, how you think, and what makes you belong at a specific school.”

“So, if you’re like me, then brace yourself for this to be a difficult part of your life. But by continually putting in the effort, you’ll get through it and learn a lot about yourself. You don’t really think that about yourself until you are asked to write university essays. However, the level of introspection that is demanded of universities made me more confident about my own interests and who I am as a person.”

From Eddy: Work Hard, Play Harder

Although seemingly counterintuitive, Eddy’s advice to those about to venture into their university journey is to work hard and play harder.

“When writing essays, burnout is your main enemy. When you’re spending three, four hours every day doing head-hurting self-reflection, it’s easy to forget to take care of your other demands as a living person. Don't be like me: I used to skip sleep or just stay in my room all day just to finish my essays. But that didn’t work in the long term, because I would end up feeling a lot more tired and even losing focus. Things improved when I started taking breaks and going out for some sunshine and exercise.”

“Recognise your sources of joy and never let go of those. For example, if you enjoy playing sports and you know playing sports helps you relieve stress, never stop playing sports. No matter how hard your applications get, always remember it's just work hard, play hard. You're already working extremely hard, so make sure to remember to care for yourself as well!”

Messages of gratitude

Eddy extends his gratitude to the teachers who have helped him during his academic journey and university applications. “I want to say a thank you to all my subject teachers for teaching me, especially Mr Baldwin and Mr Tumba for providing me helpful advice for my university applications.”

“I would also like to thank our school’s tech department for supporting my endeavours as a STEAM Prefect, especially Mr Karasik for supervising my IB Extended Essay and helping me brainstorm a lot of things during the organisation of my summer camp. I also want to thank Ms Natalie Stevens, DCB’s former Head of Tech, for her support to me early in my CS journey. Without her encouragement during my early participation in CS competitions like the Oxford University Computational Challenge (OUCC), I definitely wouldn’t have done as well.”

“Also, I want to say a massive thank you to my university counsellor Ms Meng for her helpful and considerate guidance throughout my university application process. Her advice and feedback for my school research, essay writing, and interview preparation were instrumental to me achieving university results I am truly proud of.”

“Finally, I want to say a thank you to all my friends and peers who have made my every day at school worth going and worth enjoying. Even though we may be more geographically distant in university than we have been for the last eight years of our lives, I hope we can all keep in touch and keep sharing and creating happy memories together. I’m so proud of everyone’s journeys through high school, and I’m completely confident that everyone is going to find success in their own important ways. Because if even amazing friends like mine can’t succeed in this world, then there’s no one left that can.”